How Digital Shopping Lists Work

Some digital shopping lists aren't limited to the products you'd find in grocery stores. There are several available, and many of them are free. Sites such as cozi.com give you the ability to create and add to a digital shopping list from your computer or smart phone. These sites have the same features as dedicated home-based units and can be accessed from anywhere you have an Internet connection. You can create a shopping list with products from all over the Internet with Google's shopping list. Build wish lists and shopping lists at Wishlist.com or boxedup.com.

Another option aimed at smartphone users is the Listingly application. Listingly helps you create grocery shopping lists, wish lists and even to-do lists. What's even better, you can take these lists anywhere you want, because they're designed to work well on your iPhone or Blackberry. You can print them out, too, if you like. Other lists for iPhones or iPod Touches include OneTrip, Groceries and GroceryIQ. BlackBerry users might look at SplashShopper or ShopMagic. And Android users can try out CompareEverywhere and GoCart.

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Online retail Web sites are getting into the action, too, by integrating digital shopping lists into their own retail sites. Amazon.com, for instance, features a virtual shopping list feature designed to help you make your online shopping experience more efficient. You can save these lists and keep them handy for when you're ready to buy the items you've stored. With all of your account information already on file, all you have to do is check off the items on the list and proceed to the check out. Of course, these lists are proprietary and can't be transferred from one site to the next without a little cut-and-paste work on your part.

Digital shopping lists are handy in many ways. In fact, the more your use them, the more you'll probably find they're as essential to your daily life as all that other technology you've come to depend on.

For more information on digital shopping lists and related technologies, take a look at the next page.

Online Shopping No Longer Tax-free?

One of the allures of online shopping -- beside great prices and not having to deal with crowds or surly salesmen -- has always been tax-free merchandise. That could change if lawmakers pass a bill expected to go in front of Congress in 2009 [source: Fox News]. The bill would make it mandatory for online retailers to charge sales tax. Currently, customers are not charged sales tax, unless that retailer has a physical location in the customer's home state. If the bill passes, online shopping will certainly lose one of its main advantages. It's questionable if the new tax law would do anything to bolster retail sales throughout the United States. Only time will tell.